Something Akin to A Love Story
by MelissaMarie
Summary: Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved a girl. But the boy was a bit of a moron, and the girl came to hate him and his insufferable big head more than just about anyone. For awhile at least.
1. An Introduction of Sorts

There once was a boy, who was very much in love with a girl.  
  
"Hey Evans!"  
  
The above-mentioned girl stopped and turned around to face the above- mentioned boy, wearing a bright smile.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
The boy, naturally, forgot everything that he had spent the past week and a half carefully planning to say to her, and instead said the first thing that came to mind.  
  
"Your shoes are untied."  
  
Which was just about the stupidest thing he could have said.  
  
The girl glanced down at her feet, found that her shoes were indeed untied, and gave him a strange look that she tried to mask with another smile.  
  
Seeing her smile was worth being looked at like a one legged Hippogriff any day.  
  
"Oh, thanks- well, see you around Jason."  
  
And with that, she gave him a small wave and continued on her way toward the Charms Classroom.  
  
The boy stood there, watching the way her dark red ponytail bounced along with her walk, and contemplated jumping off of the highest tower he could find.  
  
His name was James Potter, and the girl that he was madly in love with had no clue who he was.  
  
And so much of his first year at Hogwarts passed in this fashion.  
  
During the summer he grew a couple of inches taller, his voice grew a couple of octaves deeper, and he was relatively confident that this year he would be able to talk to Lily Evans in a reasonably sensible manner.  
  
This was put to the test on the first day of classes when he just so happened to run into the object of his affections in front of the Potions Classroom.  
  
"Hey Evans!"  
  
The above-mentioned girl turned around to face the above-mentioned boy wearing a slight smile.  
  
And all reasonable thoughts were replaced with visions of soft auburn hair and large green eyes, and the power of sensible speech failed him once more.  
  
So, beginning to panic, he did the first thing he could think of.  
  
He made a comment about her pigtails, which she didn't like very much, gave one of them a nice hard yank, and began calling her 'Pippi' every time they passed in the hallway.  
  
At least she knew who he was now. Even if 'That annoying Potter kid' was all she knew him as.  
  
This may not have been the smartest way to gain the attention of Miss Lily Evans, but he was, after all, a Twelve-year-old boy who was madly in love. And Twelve year old boys, much less lovesick ones, are usually rather stupid.  
  
And so, much of his Second, and Third year at Hogwarts passed in this manner.  
  
Then James went home for the summer and discovered that there were other girls out there besides Lily Evans, and these happened to like him quite a bit. He turned fourteen, grew even taller, got his first girlfriend, and subsequently, his first kiss. He told himself that Evans was just a silly crush, and went back to school on September the first wondering why he had wasted three years acting like a complete idiot whenever he entered a ten foot radius of her.  
  
And, as soon as he was within a ten-foot radius of her, this question was answered.  
  
The first thing he noticed about her, was the pale yellow sundress she had on and how well it suited the vibrant colors that made up Lily Evans. Her hair and her eyes and her skin all meshed together so boldly, and made her the most uniquely beautiful person he had ever met.  
  
After spending three months with his girlfriend and all of her neighborhood friends, he had become quite accustomed to being greeted with a smile and a compliment.  
  
The aforementioned girl, however, merely placed her hands on her hips and gave him a look that scarily resembled a dragon; smoke puffs and all.  
  
"If you come anywhere near me this year potter, I guarantee you won't live to have your name inscribed on that Quidditch cup your going to win for us."  
  
For some reason, he found this to be insanely attractive.  
  
His girlfriend could see that, and made sure to keep him as far away from her as possible over the course of the year.  
  
But that didn't matter. James Potter was decidedly in love with Lily Evans, and though his girlfriend may have succeeded in distracting him for a while, the way he felt towards that certain redhead did nothing but increase.  
  
As it turned out, James did win Gryffondor the Quidditch cup, and received so much praise on his fine Chaser skills that his head swelled to about twice its former size. He went home for the summer, was so very confident in his abilities to woo Miss Evans that he unceremoniously dumped his girlfriend of one year and two months, and developed a new strategy for winning Lily's heart, which he was able to try out at last, when he met her a couple of weeks before school started wondering aimlessly through Diagon Alley.  
  
He simply watched her for a while. Watched the way her worn out bell- bottoms swished when she walked and the way her hair floated behind her like a thick, coppery cloud.  
  
He really did love her.  
  
Then, using the charm he had perfected with his first girlfriend and was completely sure would win him his second, he walked smoothly up to her and- grabbed a handful of soft auburn hair and pulled as hard as he could.  
  
Miss Evans let out an attractive shriek, which was to be expected, and whirled around to glare at the now slightly breathless boy.  
  
He took a moment to breathe, and pasted what he considered a very suave smile on his face.  
  
"All right, Evans?"  
  
She simply rubbed her head and gave him an annoyed look.  
  
"Of course I'm not all right! You just attempted to rip a piece of my scalp off! What are you, Eight? It's a little immature to greet girls by pulling their hair."  
  
He was perfectly aware of that, but it didn't make it any easier to stop doing it. He liked touching her. Simple as that. And as pulling a chunk of the hair he so adored was possibly the only means of doing so, then he would do it. Immature or not.  
  
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that."  
  
She looked rather surprised a moment, and since this was the first time in years that she wasn't looking at him with a glare on her face, James took this as a good sign.  
  
But now, the usual panic was starting to settle in. Even with all of the ego he had managed to build up, he started to feel more and more insecure as he noticed all of the little things that made Lily Evans so beautiful. The way the light hit her eyes and made her look like a cat caught in headlights, how her lips looked like overripe cherries and parted to show the glowing white of her teeth. The little dash of freckles that marched across her nose, the long dark eyelashes that grazed just below her eyebrows when she looked up, and the pale downy skin that looked so very pure and soft.  
  
She had a tiny scar on her left eyebrow that fascinated him to no end. One day, he would ask her about it. And it would be the most interesting story in the world because she'd be telling it.  
  
A little voice in his head was screaming that he just wasn't good enough for her, and he wanted desperately to prove it wrong. He had to prove to Lily that he was worthy of her.  
  
He had to make her love him as much as he loved her.  
  
So, he quickly thought back to all of the girls who had liked him before and tried to imitate everything that they had found so irresistible. He ran a hand through his already unnaturally messy black hair; the way Roberta Roberts thought looked "Adorable"; like he had just gotten off his broomstick after a spectacular win for Gryffondor.  
  
Lily however, looked at him like he was the biggest moron she had ever had the displeasure of seeing.  
  
"I think a brush would work better."  
  
Never one to give up, James quickly racked his brain for some other way to impress her.  
  
"Wanna see something cool?"  
  
She cocked an eyebrow.  
  
"Depends...knowing you, Potter, you'll find some way to turn 'Something cool' into something annoying."  
  
He shook his head, exclaiming, "No, it's really cool, you'll see!" and he began to eagerly search the streets with wide hazel eyes.  
  
Spotting a small, particularly defenseless boy that he recognized as a second year Slytherin, James whipped his wand out, muttered a few choice words under his breath, and watched with a smug smile as a rather large purple horn grew out of the center of the boy's forehead.  
  
Amidst the boy's squeals of shock and horror, James turned, breathless with laughter, to gauge Lily's reaction.  
  
The laughter died in his throat when he saw the look on her face.  
  
Looking about ready to breath fire, she was glaring at him with her hands stemmed firmly into her sides.  
  
"Fix him back, Potter! What's cool about scaring poor defenseless little kids?"  
  
He opened and closed his mouth a moment, sputtering, and gazing incredulously between the girl and the now near hysterical boy.  
  
"He's not a little kid he's like...twelve or something, AND he's a Slytherin!"  
  
She continued to glare at him.  
  
"What does it matter?! Uncurse him!"  
  
With a sinking heart, James did what she wished, and tried his best to stifle a laugh at the look of wonder on the boys face when he realized that the horn had disappeared almost as quickly as it had come.  
  
And now, James silently struggled for something that could make him look a little less like a prat in Lily's eyes.  
  
He ruffled his hair again, causing her to give him another strange look, and tentatively flashed her a winning smile.  
  
"I made that hex up myself, you know."  
  
He felt heartened when she tilted her head to the side and gave him an impressed look.  
  
"That's really advanced magic."  
  
He let out an embarrassed but obviously pleased chuckle that annoyed her very much.  
  
Taking in a quick, anxious breath, James ventured to ask the question that he had been wanting too ask since the moment he had first laid eyes on her.  
  
"I was wondering...if your not doing anything on our first Hogsmeade trip, if you might wanna...you know...maybe...um, go out with me?"  
  
And then something happened that had never happened before.  
  
"Uh...wow. That's kind of weird. You annoyed as much as you possibly could and then decided to ask me out on a date."  
  
"Uh, sorry I guess...so will you?"  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
James Potter got rejected.  
  
But even though that was the first time he had been rejected by Lily Evans, it most certainly wasn't the last.  
  
He made a point of asking her every time he saw her, which only succeeded in making her even more annoyed at him than before.  
  
But, as he was blinded by the overwhelming feelings he felt toward her, he didn't give up.  
  
Until a certain incident that took place out by a certain lake, when James finally began to realize that maybe, Lily was actually serious when she turned him down, and maybe, she wasn't going to change her mind.  
  
And that was quite possibly the lowest moment of his life. He spent the next year convincing himself that Lily Evans was a cruel, uptight, wench who didn't deserve being with him anyway.  
  
He acquired a new, giggly girlfriend, who liked wearing pink lipstick and had more friends than she could keep track of. He liked her. She was fun, and she gave him every attention that he had never received from certain other girls.  
  
But no matter how many times he kissed his girlfriend and claimed that he had never been happier, he couldn't stop thinking about Lily. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her. He watched her as she did her work in class, the way her hair always fell in her face, which never failed to annoy her. The way she laughed at her friends as they carefully adjusted their hair using the back of their spoons at dinner, and how she always looked perfect, even without make-up, and never looked into a mirror if she could help it. 'Quite unsettling', he had heard her say one time. 'Too look at your reflection and know that your stuck with what you see for the rest of your life. No, I imagine myself to look a certain way and would rather not have it contradicted by a stupid piece of glass.'  
  
Her friends had laughed and called her dumb.  
  
James thought it was one of the most interesting observations he had ever heard.  
  
He couldn't quite understand why she would have a problem with what the mirror reflected, however.  
  
He had never met anyone more beautiful. Inside and out.  
  
And then, James' Sixth year at Hogwarts passed, bringing about a change in him that no one could ignore. He had grown up. No one knew what had triggered it, but it was undeniable. He had matured, and the difference was so remarkable and so very strange, that no one really knew what to say about it.  
  
No one but his best mate, Sirius Black.  
  
"C'mon Prongs, you've been a right old bore lately!" Exclaimed the faithful friend.  
  
He gave James a contemptuous look and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed across his chest.  
  
James, however, merely continued on with the letter he had been writing to his Mom and Dad casting Sirius an amused half-smile.  
  
"I don't see what you mean by a 'bore' Sirius. Just yesterday we charmed your dear cousin Narcissa into a tea-pot."  
  
The handsome youth came very close to pouting.  
  
"You never used to bother with writing your parents."  
  
James dipped his quill into an inkpot that lay abandoned on the Common room coffee table, shaking his head slightly.  
  
"I never used to think about anything that didn't involve Quidditch, pranks or impressing girls."  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Impressing girls? You mean Lily Evans? You've been obsessed with her for so long that she doesn't even count as a girl anymore."  
  
He shook his head again, and Sirius frowned at the sudden serious look on his friends face.  
  
"I'm ashamed of the way I used to be Padfoot." He let out a tired sigh. "Heartily ashamed."  
  
He finished his letter and stood up, looking him straight in the eyes.  
  
"I've realized that the world doesn't revolve around me." He grinned and made for the portrait hole. "I apologize if that makes me a 'Right old bore'."  
  
There was one other person who had realized the immense change in James.  
  
And it just so happened that he ran into her in the Owlery while setting out to deliver his letter.  
  
She didn't notice him at first.  
  
Indeed, it didn't look as if she would have noticed anything at the moment. She was perched on the edge of the glassless circular window through which the grounds of Hogwarts spanned in all it's glory; a wide sprawling tapestry of rich colors and life.  
  
Slipping slightly on straw and owl droppings, James inched toward her. The wind tussled her hair, which he noticed was getting quite long. She had her eyes closed.  
  
And once again he watched her.  
  
He had never felt so much for one person in his entire life. His heart felt swollen to about twice its normal size, his breath constricted and what felt like a mass of pixies began to squirm in his stomach.  
  
He opened his mouth to say something, but found that he couldn't. He wanted to tell her so much...but somehow using words wasn't enough. How could he ever communicate to her in words that he would do anything in the world for her; he'd give her everything he had, he'd give her the very breath in his body...  
  
The sun was slowly sinking, showering the tiny room with a bright ethereal light.  
  
He watched the downy silhouette of her shoulders and arms, surrounded by the fiery glow of the dying sun, and suddenly her beauty became too much to bear.  
  
He had to say something before he did something stupid.  
  
"Um...hi."  
  
She jumped about a foot in the air and whirled around with one spidery pale hand clutching her heart.  
  
He smiled weakly at her, and shoved his hands in his pockets. Still breathing a little unevenly, she gave him a curious look.  
  
"Potter..." She inclined her head, and casting him a sidelong glance walked over to one of the long perches, searching for an owl.  
  
At least that's what she wanted him to think she was doing. But James, who had made a sort of art out of watching Lily Evans over the past six years, knew that she had no intention of finding an owl.  
  
She always came up here at sundown, and he had caught her up here during a couple of sunrises as well. His heart swelled even bigger when he realized that he was probably the only person in the world who knew that Lily Evans loved to watch the sunset. Oh what wouldn't he give to watch it with her one day... he could think of nothing he wanted more...  
  
He realized that he should probably stop staring at her before she ran away screaming.  
  
"I was just sending out a letter to my..." It was remarkable how every ounce of saliva could dry up after one look from her. What had he said? Oh crap...how did this talking thing work again?  
  
"To my...my pants...er I mean...um...crap, what did I say? Uh...did I just say pants? Because I meant to say rents uh err...parents I mean...um...yeah...that's it..."  
  
She stared at him a moment with her head tilted to the side and her mouth slightly ajar. He felt his face burn with embarrassment as she burst out laughing. He buried his head in his hands seriously considering jumping out the window.  
  
But then he felt her hands on his, pulling them away from his face. When he opened his eyes, he saw only the startling green of her own and watched the delicate flutter of her long eyelashes as she blinked at him.  
  
"It's okay, you know."  
  
All he could concentrate on was the feel of her hands on his. And the fact that she had not let go of them yet. They were soft and flowed over his own fingers like silk.  
  
"What is?" He replied, staring at her face intently. He could count the freckles on her nose he was so close...he could smell her shampoo...she smelled like flowers...  
  
"It's okay to sound stupid every once in awhile."  
  
She smiled at him, and James thought his heart might jump right out of his ribcage. She'd never looked at him the way she was looking at him now...oh god, how long had he craved that smile...  
  
She suddenly seemed very serious, and he couldn't help but stare at her with new intensity. He loved the way she looked when she felt vulnerable. It was better than her usual perfection.  
  
It was deliciously human.  
  
"You've really changed."  
  
He gulped loudly.  
  
"I was a moron."  
  
"Yes. Yes you were."  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"Well...it's kind of hard for me to think at the moment so please forgive me for not having a witty reply."  
  
She quirked an eyebrow at him.  
  
"Why are you so nervous?"  
  
He blinked.  
  
"Because you're standing next to me. Approximately four inches away and you smell like my mums flower garden. I'm sorry Lily; I know I'm not making any sense. I never can make sense when...well...like I said your four inches away. And you're touching my hand. Yeah."  
  
She let out a strangled laugh, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.  
  
"You called me Lily."  
  
He was smiling now, and he didn't even know why. It was strange how easy the name he had refused to say out loud for six years had rolled off of his tongue. It was strange how wonderful it felt rolling off his tongue.  
  
"Lily..."  
  
He wasn't sure why he had said it. And he wasn't sure why he kept on saying it.  
  
"Lily, Lily, Lily..."  
  
She released her hands from his. He was shocked when his own automatically reached out and took hold of her arm.  
  
She looked up at him through a thick veil of sooty lashes and he swallowed.  
  
"Don't..." He said, not sure what he was doing or saying any more.  
  
He watched the confusion on her face transform into a lovely sort of hesitation. The kind of look a girl gets just before you kiss them for the first time. His other hand found her own and he gently traced the soft skin before entwining his fingers in hers.  
  
He wondered vaguely at how his entire body seemed to be out of his control as of late.  
  
The other hand moved from her arm to the side of her face where he hesitantly touched her cheek. Her eyebrows furrowed together and he could feel her gulp under his fingertips.  
  
"I...I want to tell you how I feel..."  
  
His fingers gently traced down the curve of her neck, creeping slowly into the mass of silky auburn hair.  
  
"But I don't know how to describe it to you..."  
  
She lifted her eyes from where they had stationed themselves on the ground. He opened his mouth and closed it again. It was hard to talk, as he had never felt so dizzy in his life. She surrounded him...her smell...and her softness...it was what he had been wanting for so long...  
  
"Your so different from everyone else. Your-" He gulped and allowed the hand that was previously in her hair to roam to the back of her neck. "You're beautiful...but your everything else too. You...your...I cant explain what you do to me...what you've always done to me..."  
  
He was slowly leaning forward, and was vaguely aware of his hand coming to a halt on her lower back where he gently pressed her against him.  
  
"You drive me crazy."  
  
He stopped when his lips were but a few centimeters away from hers and looked her straight in the eyes.  
  
Her lips parted slightly; he could feel the heavy beating of her heart pressed against his chest and fought for breath, starting to feel quite faint. Just as he leaned in to do the unthinkable, Lily pulled herself out of his arms and backed away from him at startling speed.  
  
She pressed her back against the wall and stood staring at him with wide eyes. He watched the rapid rise and fall of her chest and the way she gripped the edge of the window behind her.  
  
"I love you Lily!"  
  
She gulped audibly, and looked rather terrified.  
  
But he didn't care. He was furious now. Years and years of pent up emotion was quickly coming to a boiling point and he wanted nothing more than to see those damn eyes of hers fill with tears, he wanted her to know how much she had hurt him.  
  
"I've always loved you! I loved you when you thought my name was Jason, and I loved you when I teased you and pulled your stupid pigtails! I see your face when I kiss my damn girlfriend and I hate myself for it! Not a day has gone by, since I first laid eyes on you, that I don't think about you. I can't stop! That's the worst part; I just cant stop loving you! You don't understand what it's like to love someone so much it hurts, so much that you can't breathe and you can't think! I'd give you anything Lily, I'd give you everything I owned if you asked for it-"  
  
He stopped and let out a low growl of frustration, pulling at his hair.  
  
"Do you see what you do to me?! You drive me absolutely crazy! Everything about you! All the little things that your friends think are weird, the way you always get every answer right in class and the way you still defended Snape even after he called you a mudblood. But you'll never accept that will you? I'll never be good enough for you!"  
  
She was crying now, but it had the opposite effect that he had thought it would have.  
  
He had never felt like more of a prick in his entire life.  
  
"Lily I..."  
  
She turned away and began sobbing loudly.  
  
He suddenly felt as though the walls were closing in on him. There wasn't enough air in the room. He closed his eyes briefly, trying regain some control. But all he could concentrate on was the hollow sound of her crying, echoing against the dusty stone walls.  
  
He took a step towards her.  
  
"Please...please don't...cry...I don't think I can bear it Lily..."  
  
She retreated even further away from him. He put his face in his hands and tried to focus on breathing properly.  
  
That was why he never noticed Lily running at him, and he got the surprise of his life when he felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around him.  
  
"Oh James!"  
  
And much to his consternation, he found his body quite incapable of moving. It had been so keen to act without his permission a few minutes ago, but now! He was stuck looking like a particularly thick goldfish.  
  
But even that could not stem the rising sensation in his stomach...like he had missed a step going down or was flying straight upwards on his broomstick...  
  
Slowly, he unfolded his arms and placed them around the trembling girl in front of him.  
  
He let out a tiny laugh.  
  
She had called him James.


	2. Stalker Tendencies

  
  
Alright.  
  
Before the story of James Potter's horrendously amusing love life can commence, it is necessary to summarize the last few weeks of his Sixth year at Hogwarts, so we can move on to the summer before his seventh.  
  
Awkward. That's all there is to be said really. Terribly, horribly, embarrassingly awkward.  
  
When he entered a room, she would leave it. When she entered a room, he would pretend to leave it and hide behind something so he could stare at her as much as he pleased.  
  
She'd nod at him in the halls from time to time, and he'd stutter out something incoherent, but that was really the only bit of communication between them now.  
  
No, he didn't like it.  
  
Not one bit.  
  
But when he thought back to exactly what he had said that night, he couldn't really blame her.  
  
He probably came off as some sort of stalker.  
  
Oh god.  
  
How would he ever get Lily Evans to fall in love with him now?"What are you on about, Padfoot..."  
  
Sirius continued his dramatic pacing of the room, stopping every once in awhile to stroke at the rather fluffy bit of black hair on his chin.  
  
"I'm trying to explain some of the benefits of manhood to you Prongs, now be a good lad and pay attention..."  
  
James rolled his eyes and continued to scribble away madly at a piece of parchment that was well on its way to touching the floor. Sirius, unfazed as always, continued on happily with his rant.  
  
"Perk of manhood number one- Independence."  
  
A snort of laughter was heard as Mrs. Potter appeared at the doorframe and tossed a pile of clean underwear at him.  
  
"Independent my arse. You'll be crawling back here every Sunday begging me to wash your undies and bake cookies."  
  
Sirius opened his mouth to disagree, suddenly found her statement to be quite true and grinned instead.  
  
"Right you are Mrs. Potter. And you'll be begging me not to go."  
  
She rolled her eyes and threw a pair of pinstriped boxer shorts at her rather inattentive son. He continued to write, pretending he didn't notice the shorts hanging precariously off the top of his head.  
  
"I'll kick you out right now if you don't shave that ridiculous bit of hair off of your face."  
  
He smirked.  
  
"Which bit? I am particularly fond of my eyebrows..."  
  
A pair of rolled up socks collided with his head.  
  
"I'm talking about that miserable excuse of a goatee that's residing on your chin. Get rid of it. You look like a moron. Or worse. Like my husband."  
  
Mr. Potter walked by, not moving his eyes from his copy of the Daily Prophet.  
  
"I heard that."  
  
"I love you darling."  
  
He shook his head and turned the page, continuing on through the hall. His wife smiled, rolled her eyes at Sirius's goatee, and turned her attention on her son.  
  
"Dear god, James, who are you writing too?"  
  
He reached up to remove the shorts, and deftly dipped his quill in a nearby inkwell.  
  
"No one."  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes. Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes. If the pinstriped boxer shorts had eyes, they would most assuredly be rolling.  
  
"Her." Said both Sirius and Mrs. Potter at the same time, causing James to look up from his novel-length letter with an indignant frown.  
  
"Well it is her!" Mrs. Potter interjected. "You've been in love with her since that time we ran into her on the platform, remember? Poor thing was knocked unconscious. Her parents were good about it though, didn't press charges or anything. Eleven years old and doomed to the utter agony and torture of love."  
  
She shook her head.  
  
"Bit sad really."  
  
James signed his letter with a flourish and tied it off with a bit of gold string. He looked immensely pleased with himself.  
  
"This should do the trick!" He declared happily.  
  
Mrs. Potter and Sirius exchanged glances.  
  
"That's what you said about the hair ruffling thing." Said Sirius flatly, eyeing the letter with some apprehension.  
  
James considered that a moment, scratching the back of his head.  
  
"Erm. Could you read it for me then Mum? You were a girl once, you would know if this would, er, creep her out?"  
  
"Of course, darling, let me see it- Wait. Once? I was a girl once? What am I now, a moose?"  
  
"Mum!"  
  
"Oh alright, alright..."  
  
She unfolded the letter huffily and Sirius eagerly popped his head over her shoulder to read along.  
  
Mrs. Potter's eyebrows rose steadily higher as she progressed through the letter, and she had to elbow Sirius harshly in the ribs when he burst out in rather insensitive laughter halfway through. When she reached the end, there was a very loud silence, and Sirius, doing what he assumed every good friend should do, walked around to James and clapped a hand on his shoulder sympathetically.  
  
"Sorry mate, but you come off a bit...stalkerish."  
  
"Stalkerish?!"  
  
James looked despairingly up at his mother, who rolled the letter up and set it down on an end table.  
  
"He's right, you know."  
  
He put his head in his hands and began mumbling incoherently. Mrs. Potter sat down and put her arms around him comfortingly.  
  
"Well, perhaps you could have left out the fact that you knew the exact number of hours since you had last seen her."  
  
Sirius, casting a shifty at mother and son, grabbed the letter and stuck it into his back pocket without being seen.  
  
"Maybe assuring her that you would readily murder anyone who touched her was bit much...and the fact that you had watched her sleep one night in the common room..."  
  
"That's stalkerish, that is."  
  
"Yes-" Feeling desperately sorry for her forlorn son, Mrs. Potter gave him a squeeze and said-  
  
"You know, your father used to write me letters like this all the time."  
  
James brightened.  
  
"And you two ended up married! So I might have a chance after all!"  
  
"Well...I thought he was kind of creepy actually. But yes, once he broke through the restraining order I had placed on him and proved his love to me in a reasonably sensible manner (Well, as sensible as a love struck Potter can get, which isn't very far I'm sorry to say), we got together, snogged a bit and decided to get married."  
  
James and Sirius winced.  
  
"Ew."  
  
She rolled her eyes and got off the couch.  
  
"Oh shut-up."  
  
Once his mother left the room, continuing her usual house cleaning pursuits, James sank into a fit of daydreaming, which most assuredly involved a certain red-haired girl with almond shaped eyes. Sirius guessed that Lily might not be doing entirely proper things in this fantasy either, as James was so engrossed in what was going on in his mind, that he didn't notice him stand up, call his owl over, and tie a rolled up scroll onto it's leg with a piece of golden string. 


	3. What Girlfriend?

  
  
Days passed in the Potter residence with nothing of great consequence taking place.  
  
True, Sirius's goatee had been mysteriously shaven off while he was sleeping, and James had broken his twelfth consecutive window while playing Quidditch, but nothing out of the ordinary really.  
  
"Don't look at me like that, Sirius."  
  
He continued to do so with new intensity. Mrs. Potter passed her husband the gravy, and made a tutting noise.  
  
"When I told I was going to shave it off in your sleep I wasn't lying."  
  
"You're a mother! Mother's shouldn't do things like that!"  
  
She helped herself to a biscuit.  
  
"I'm James's mother. You live in my house. There's a difference. I love you both the same but I'm allowed to have more fun with you."  
  
Sirius stabbed his egg petulantly.  
  
"I'm honored. Really." He replied flatly, and turned to James with a scowl.  
  
"Perk of Manhood number two- your allowed to have a bloody beard if you want one!"  
  
James rolled his eyes. It was of his opinion that Sirius should be thanking his mother for saving him from the embarrassment and shame of being seen in public with that growth on his chin.  
  
Mrs. Potter looked over at Mr. Potter and said in an offhand voice, which everyone knew was far from offhand- "Months gone by rather quickly, eh John?"  
  
"Mmm."  
  
"I can't believe it's the 23rd already!"  
  
"Mmm."  
  
"Are you listening to me?"  
  
"Mmm."  
  
She picked up her goblet and slammed it down loudly on the table, ignoring the "Oy! Watch it woman!" that issued from Sirius when the contents of her glass sloshed all over his robes. And her husband still had his nose in that damn paper.  
  
"Hey! Woo-hoo, oh prattish husband of mine!"  
  
He looked up at that.  
  
She gave him a sweet smile.  
  
"Hello there! Remember me? Your wife of NEARLY TWENTY YEARS?"  
  
He stared at her blankly causing her to roll her eyes.  
  
"Of course you don't."  
  
There was a brief silence during which they continued on with their breakfast and Mrs. Potter sat with her arms crossed looking sulky.  
  
"I haven't forgotten."  
  
Everyone looked up to stare at him. Mr. Potter calmly turned the page of his newspaper.  
  
"And I haven't forgotten that our anniversary is tomorrow, Elizabeth. So you can quit with all of those 'subtle' hints you've been tossing my way since dinner."  
  
He smiled at her over his paper, and James thought that the way his dad looked at his mum was uncannily like the way he looked at Lily.  
  
But he had never seen Lily look so pleased as his mum did at that moment.  
  
Mr. Potter's smile turned wry.  
  
"After all of the trouble I went through to get you to marry me, how could I forget?"  
  
It was all rather sweet and romantic until a large barn owl swept in through the window, rather ruining the moment when it landed with a loud squelching noise in Mrs. Potter's porridge.  
  
"Bloody bird..." She pulled out her wand to clean up the mess as the owl hopped over to James and Sirius. Each boy took a letter off of its leg and watched it fly out of the open window.  
  
"Hogwarts letters..."  
  
James noted that his was rather more bulky than usual. He took a fork and attempted to slice it neatly open. The envelope however, ripped right down the middle, causing its contents to flutter to the ground.  
  
There was a loud clunk and a splash as a silver Head-Boy badge fell out of the envelope and landed in his Chocolate milk.  
  
James bent down so the glass was eye level and watched it glimmer at the bottom.  
  
He elbowed Sirius in the ribs with his mouth hanging open.  
  
"There's a Head-Boy badge in my milk!"  
  
"No there isn't."  
  
James frowned at him, knowing he hadn't even bothered to look. He had grown bored with his letter and was now busy folding his supply list into an exact replica of the latest Comet 160. After another rough elbow in the ribs however, Sirius turned to observe the contents of James's goblet, and he watched, with eyes the size of dinner plates, as what was unmistakably a badge floated to the surface of the glass. The letters HB twinkled up at him.  
  
"James! There's a Head-Boy badge in your milk!"  
  
They stared at it for a couple of minutes.  
  
"Who in their right mind would make you Head-Boy?"  
  
James tried to look affronted but gave up.  
  
"I have no idea."  
  
They stared at it some more. Suddenly the hilarity of the situation became too much for Sirius to bear, and he burst out laughing. James didn't find it funny.  
  
He pulled out the letter that went along with it to make sure there hadn't been a mistake. Nope, he thought dismally. He was stuck with it.  
  
"This is crap!" He exclaimed.  
  
Sirius let out a loud howl of laughter.  
  
"It says here that the majority of my free time will be spent with the Head- Girl and we will be at the beck and call of any teacher who needs us! I'm gonna be a slave to the school Padfoot! And the Head-Girl is likely to be an uptight wench..." He trailed off.  
  
The words 'uptight' and 'wench' had triggered something in his memory.  
  
Suddenly an insanely large grin spread across his face that caused Sirius to quit laughing and give him a wary look.  
  
"Oh no...I know that creepy grin...your thinking about her, aren't you?"  
  
The grin broadened a bit.  
  
"I am merely considering the perks that come along with being Head-Boy, such as long private meetings with the Head-Girl...."  
  
"I thought you said this was a bad thing. I thought you said she was going to be an uptight wench." He deadpanned, looking worried for his friend's sanity.  
  
"And I was right! Lily Evans is my favoritist uptight wench in the world!"  
  
"One, favoritist is not a word. Moron. Two, you don't know that Lily is head-girl."  
  
"Of course I do."  
  
"No you don't."  
  
"Who else would it be?"  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"Good point."  
  
"I know."  
  
"Shut-up."  
  
They turned back to James's goblet and continued to stare into it.  
  
"I've been trying to eavesdrop for ages, but all I can make out is that there's something shiny in your milk." Said Mrs. Potter.  
  
"They speak blarney, it's no use trying to understand them." Replied Mr. Potter conversationally.  
  
"I'm head boy."  
  
Mr. And Mrs. Potter burst out laughing. James looked rather indignant and fished the badge out of his goblet.  
  
"It's true!"  
  
He tossed the badge at his father who caught it deftly between his fingers.  
  
Husband and Wife looked at each other, then looked at the badge, then at James, then at the badge again, and then settled on their son with equal looks of shock etched onto their faces.  
  
Mrs. Potter suddenly leapt to her feet, ran around the table and captured James in a bone-breaking embrace.  
  
"Oh! My Jamie Head-Boy! I never would have believed it!"  
  
"Yeah that's obvious."  
  
"Your so talented James! If only you weren't such a damned delinquent!"  
  
"Delinquent or not, I'm still Head-Boy. I must have done something right."  
  
"Or you got in with the right people. I always thought McGonnagal fancied you..."  
  
"Shut-up Sirius."  
  
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna be sick."  
  
James looked round at his Dad and was pleased to find him beaming proudly at him.  
  
"You know what? I think this calls for a celebration! Let's all go and have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron!"  
  
And so they did.  
  
As it turned out though, Mr. And Mrs. Potter decided to get all mushy and lovey during the second course, and after James pretended to vomit all over the floor and exclaimed loudly for them to get a room, he and Sirius found themselves quite alone with a pouch of floo-powder and a bag of money, watching with a strong feeling of disgust as his parents disapparated back home to do things he would rather not think about.  
  
So the duo were left to their own devices for the remainder of the day.  
  
They managed to nick a handful of beetle eyes from the apothecary, which they flicked at the people sitting under brightly colored umbrellas in front of Florean Fortescues Ice Cream Parlor. Then they went to Flourish and Blotts and, after grudgingly purchasing what books they needed for the upcoming year, found the most lurid romance novels they could get their hands on and read aloud the particularly passionate scenes to each other and a couple of middle aged women who thought they were being sly hiding in the Invisibility Book section. After a very narrow escape out of Knockturn Alley, the two found themselves a bench at which they sorted through their assortment of what were most likely illegal fireworks, school supplies that couldn't be ignored (Though they had tried too), and a large bag of chocolate frogs which were halfway diminished in five minutes time.  
  
"I'm bored"  
  
James ignored him and popped another frog in his mouth.  
  
"I'm bored."  
  
"No, your repetitive and you state the obvious."  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"I'm bored."  
  
James thought up a rather witty reply to this comment, but was so bored himself that he didn't even bother to say it.  
  
After awhile, Sirius found a sufficient source of amusement in the form of a cute blonde girl who stood across the street eyeing him with quite a bit of interest. He lounged back in his seat, let his dark hair fall into his eyes, and shot her a cocky smile. Naturally, the girl blushed like mad and giggled so loud that a passing warlock stared at her with some alarm. Sirius grinned at James who rolled his eyes. He hated it when they giggled like that.  
  
The sun passed under a massive cloud and the street darkened a bit.  
  
James let his eyes shift in and out of focus as he stared around at the busy witches and wizards feeling comfortably lethargic and deciding he wouldn't move for another two or three hours at least.  
  
His focus fell on the back of a girl that was browsing through a rack of the latest wizarding magazines across the street. All he could see was the back of her, and as it was a rather nice view, James watched her for a while. She had on one of those backless tops and a pair of deliciously low- cut jeans. James wondered how Muggles managed to come up with such an excellent way for girls to show just about everything, while showing nothing at the same time.  
  
Genius really.  
  
His gaze followed her lazily as she wondered away from the rack and strode over to the cute blonde that was shooting furtive glances at Sirius (Who was now more interested in getting a pebble out of his shoe, I'm sorry to say) and blushing madly.  
  
There was something vaguely familiar about the way she walked that made James sit up a bit straighter and watch her with new intensity. The way her hips moved carelessly from side to side and her ponytail bounced along in her wake.  
  
The sun burst suddenly out from behind the clouds and showered the street dwellers in sunlight.  
  
He squinted his eyes at the girl as she turned her head slightly to call over another girl she seemed to know.  
  
He could see the delicately sloped nose, the tiniest fluttering of long fine eyelashes, and those pouty pink lips that he'd know anywhere. A ray of sunlight fell on her hair as she stepped into the street, and the vivid deep red of her ponytail left him in no doubt of who it was.  
  
"Oy! Look Prongs! It's Evans!"  
  
James wished he hadn't noticed her at all now. The last thing he wanted at the moment was too turn into Potter-the-Prat and become completely stupid as soon as he got a look into those big green eyes of hers.  
  
Sirius let out a low whistle and followed the progress of her hips with his eyes.  
  
"Would you look at that...?" He let out a chuckle and clapped Prongs on the back. "Now I remember why you obsess over her prongs! She's..." he tilted his head a bit and continued to stare at her. "Wow..."  
  
James briefly thought about whether he should curse his best friend into oblivion or simply punch him in the head.  
  
Either one sounded extremely appealing at the moment.  
  
But all feelings except for blind panic were quickly dashed away when he realized that the three girls, including (Oh horror!) Lily, were walking their way.  
  
He automatically reached up a hand to ruffle his hair, caught himself, and tried desperately to smooth it instead. Sirius sat up a bit as well and waved over the girls with a dastardly smirk.  
  
James brought his foot down on top of Sirius's as hard as he could, ignored the loud flow of curses that streamed from his mouth, and looked up just in time to see Lily Evans come to a halt in front of him.  
  
He stopped breathing.  
  
He must have forgotten the way her eyes gleamed and her skin sparkled when the sun shone on her like that. He must have forgotten the way her delicate throat quivered when she swallowed and the way her fingers flew automatically to her mouth when she was nervous. He must have forgotten all of these things because he was now so overwhelmed by them that it was almost like he had never seen her before and he was falling head over heels in love all over again.  
  
"Are you alright James?"  
  
He remembered to breathe again and shook his head.  
  
"Uh...I mean- Yeah, yes, I am."  
  
Lily tilted her head a bit and watched him, still chewing on her fingers nervously. He really couldn't stand it when she did that. It drove him crazy, in more ways than one.  
  
Apparently her friends couldn't stand it either, as both of them reached out and elbowed her in the ribs at the same time. Lily shot them both venomous looks, and brought her hands down to fiddle with the string that tied her shirt together in the back.  
  
James forgot to breath again.  
  
One of her friends, a tall dark haired girl that James recalled as being a Ravenclaw in their year, Scarlett Donavon, pushed Lily forward in a not so gentle manner.  
  
"She needs to talk to you." She said to James, and grabbed the blonde girl by the arm, Esme Hymen, he thought she was, a Hufflepuff, and with a last furtive smile at Lily, the two of them scurried across the street giggling madly.  
  
Sirius looked at James, who was staring at Lily, with no shame at all mind you, and then to the backs of the retreating girls, finally settling on Lily, watching as she turned an attractive shade of magenta and fiddled away nervously with her shirt strings.  
  
Realization dawned on him.  
  
"Oh...you'll be wanting to discuss the letter then..."  
  
He clapped James on the back, grinned charmingly at Lily, and walked away.  
  
James watched his best friend stroll towards the two departed girls across the street (Who were holding up a magazine and peering at them over the top of it) feeling a broad mixture of confusion, nausea, and annoyance.  
  
He saw Lily squirming out of the corner of his eye and wondered what on earth he was supposed to do now.  
  
After a long, uncomfortable silence, Lily opened her mouth to say something.  
  
But what she was going to say, he never found out. Because at that precise moment a disturbance in the form of a tall girl with pretty blue eyes and lot's of pink lipstick ran in between them and threw herself into James's arms.  
  
"James Potter!" She squealed, pulling away from him and placing her hands on her hips.  
  
Oh dear.  
  
Over the course of the past few months he had conveniently forgotten all about Joanna Burns and the fact that she was officially his girlfriend.  
  
He smiled nervously, looking between the two girls and wanting nothing more than to run away screaming.  
  
Joanna arched one perfectly plucked eyebrow and tilted her head to the side. One high-heeled sandaled foot began tapping impatiently.  
  
"Well? I'm waiting for your excuse."  
  
He stared at her. She flipped a plait of long brown hair over her shoulder and gave him a pointed look.  
  
"Um...excuse?"  
  
"Yes. Your excuse. I want to know why you've not written me a single line in two months. Haven't you gotten my letters?"  
  
Perhaps he had. Unfortunately, whenever he received a letter that was wasn't from Padfoot, Mooney, Wormtail, Hogwarts, Lily (He had never really received a letter from Lily, but he was still hoping), or his Granny Edna he didn't bother to read it. He might have used one of her letters during that big paper war he, Sirius, and his Mum had had over the summer.  
  
He was momentarily sidetracked by the memory of his mother wearing a paper hat made out of a discarded Daily Prophet, laughing maniacally and charming several paper balls to pummel he and Sirius until they retreated behind the sofa where they heroically begged for mercy. He grinned vaguely before he noticed the look on her face.  
  
"What are you grinning about?"  
  
"Nothing, nothing."  
  
She crossed her arms and frowned.  
  
He felt really bad for Joanna, he did like her after all, she was nice and a lot of fun, but at the moment he was more concerned with Lily, and the fact that she looked about ready to murder him.  
  
The latter shook her head furiously and walked away.  
  
"Lily! Wait, wait don't go-"  
  
"Hold up- what about me? You know, your girlfriend?" Interjected Joanna, grabbing him angrily by the back of his robes and stopping him from running after the redhead.  
  
"Need I point out how very suspicious this looks?" She said, watching his eyes dart once more towards Lily's retreating back, before settling on the ground in defeat.  
  
She searched his face a moment.  
  
"Your still in love with her aren't you, you great prat!"  
  
She laughed, a cruel bitter sort of laugh that James didn't like at all.  
  
"This is just lovely. Absolutely brilliant. Bloody great." She rolled her eyes in disgust.  
  
He knew she was more humiliated than she was hurt. She was never very serious about their relationship, which was okay with him because he was never very serious about it either.  
  
She threw her arms up in the air. He wondered if she was going to hit him.  
  
"Thank you for making a fool of me James, It's been fun. Really."  
  
She turned and walked away.  
  
"Good luck with Lily Evans." She called, without turning around. "Your sure as hell going to need it."  
  
He stood still for a good five seconds staring blankly at an oddly shaped pebble on the ground in front of him and marveling over the fact that he had just broken up with his girlfriend without having to say a single word to her.  
  
Then he sprang to life and dashed down the street in search of Lily, all the while carefully planning his groveling apologies and assuring himself that she would forgive him at once.  
  
But, as fate would have it, Lily did not forgive him at once. She did not forgive him at all. In fact, she slapped him hard across the face and called him a number of things that he never would have thought were even in her vocabulary.  
  
Sirius strolled around the corner thirty-two minutes later and found James, quite alone, sitting on a bench, dejectedly throwing bits of pumpkin pasties at the pigeons. Sitting the day's purchases aside, he sprawled out beside him, resting his arm around the back of the bench and observing the nails on his right hand carefully.  
  
"Didn't go too well then?"  
  
James turned to smirk at him.  
  
"Is there such thing as 'going well' when it comes to me and Lily Evans?"  
  
He had a point. 


	4. Platform Duels and Duck Attacks

September the First was a surprisingly cold day considering summer was just dying down and fall was yet to be born. Rain fell down on Platform 9 ¾ in driving sheets, and the sky was dark and heavy with blackish clouds. The comfortable chaos that was to be expected when the Hogwarts Express pulled in was suddenly not so comfortable, and the platform had transformed into complete bedlam as people ran about with wayward blowing umbrellas and cloaks pulled over their heads.  
  
Sirius Black and James Potter, who thrived on things like bedlam and chaos, were having the times of their lives.  
  
"Draw you scurvy knave, you dog!" Cried James, pointing his bent and tangled umbrella at Sirius in a rather juvenile manner.  
  
Sirius whipped his own umbrella out in front of him and grinned blindingly against the onslaught of rain. "What ho? A challenge! Prepare to meet your doom!"  
  
And they proceeded to whack each other repeatedly, screaming out capital insults and attracting quite a few stares.  
  
Mr. and Mrs. Potter, who had set up a rather nifty umbrella spell around their heads, told them halfheartedly to act their age before they began to cheer them on enthusiastically.  
  
"There James! Attack his blindside, that's it!"  
  
"Come on Sirius, poke him in the stomach!"  
  
Sirius did as he was told, perhaps a little too roughly, and with a loud sort of battle cry that made everyone turn and stare, all but impaled James on the end of his pointed umbrella.  
  
Quite deprived of breath, James stumbled backwards, trying to focus on not laughing his head off, as he needed all his energy to breath. He landed with a wet 'thwack' on the pavement and closed his eyes for a moment, taking in a couple of haggard breaths. He heard scrambling around him, and then the sound of light footsteps running over.  
  
"Aha! I have conquered!" He heard Sirius cry, punctuated by a loud 'thunk' that sounded as if someone had hit him.  
  
"You moron! You really hurt him!" It was a girl's voice. A deep throaty voice that was sensual and sweet and altogether highly attractive. He knew that voice...  
  
"Oh he'll be fine, just knocked the air out of him..." His father assured the familiar voice, and he could feel people bending over him.  
  
He opened his eyes slowly and could make out the rain-blurred image of four people above him.  
  
There was his Mum and Dad, of course, looking vaguely ashamed of themselves. And, thought James with a smirk, they bloody well should be...Sirius, grinning like mad, hardly able to see through a face full of wet black hair...and...wow...maybe he was delusional...yeah, that was it...there was no other way to explain Lily Evans's presence and the fact that she looked almost worried about him...yes definitely delusional...  
  
Her long hair was down and completely soaked, the water making it heavy and turning it almost black...her skin was paler than usual, and glistened with raindrops, there were a couple clinging to her long eyelashes as well, and James found that to be wildly attractive.  
  
Her eyes startled him a bit.  
  
They were so large and so vibrant compared to the stark white of her skin. An almost unnatural green...vaguely haunting green...yes...a delusion...beauty like this had to be just that...an illusion...  
  
He blinked up at her.  
  
"Are you alright?" She asked, her brow furrowed.  
  
He reached out a hand and brought it to her face. She got that look on her face again, the nervous hesitation, the look she had worn whenever he had nearly pounced on her in the Owlery.  
  
He touched her cheek. Her skin was cold and kind of clammy, but it was real and that was good enough for him.  
  
He smiled nonsensically.  
  
He didn't know if it was because of the cold, or the rain, or the large green eyes that were boring into him, or the fact that he had just been stabbed in the stomach by a particularly pointy umbrella, but he was feeling distinctly dazed and out of his senses.  
  
He was going to attempt to say something incredibly witty and charming and it all would have been very romantic if his father had never opened his mouth.  
  
"Oh...you must be her..."  
  
Sirius grinned and elbowed Lily in the side.  
  
"Yeah, this is good old Evans! Told you she was a fox, best looking witch around, eh Jamie boy?"  
  
James opened his mouth to agree at once, but changed his mind when he noticed the furious look Lily was shooting Sirius. She mumbled something and hit him, making him laugh.  
  
"Oh, don't worry about being embarrassed around them!" He exclaimed loudly, pointing to Mr. and Mrs. Potter, and making Lily hit him again.  
  
He rubbed his arm and let out another short laugh that sounded like a bark. "They're the ones that told me to stab James, you know..."  
  
The two adults looked a little embarrassed.  
  
"That's not true, Sirius." Said Mr. Potter. He pointed to his wife. "She's the one, not me!"  
  
They got into a short argument involving the words 'Traitor' and 'Jerk' before finishing it up with one of Mrs. Potter's favorite phrases, 'I never should've had that Restraining order lifted!'.  
  
Lily stared at them.  
  
James stared at her.  
  
Sirius stared at a witch who ran by in a white shirt.  
  
"ALL ABOARD!"  
  
The whistle on the train blew, and the chaos on the Platform increased dramatically.  
  
Mr. and Mrs. Potter stood abruptly, still bickering, while Lily and Sirius grabbed James's hands and hauled him to his feet. Sirius clapped him on the back, swinging his umbrella jauntily.  
  
"Sorry 'bout that mate," He grinned. "If I knew Evans was watching I would've let you win."  
  
After hugs and goodbyes were handed out, everyone rushed on board the train, shivering when coming in contact with the cold, blessedly dry air. Sirius grinned and captured Lily in a hug, which she quickly disentangled herself from. She rolled her eyes and walked inside the compartment labeled 'Head Students', without a backward glance.  
  
James and Sirius grinned at each other.  
  
"I knew she would be Head-girl! I mean come on, who else could have beaten her too it? Me and Lily...working together...and working alone quite often, mind you...thank god for Dumbledore being insane and naming me Head-Boy!"  
  
James thought about doing a victory dance, but was still rather sore from his previous trysts and decided against it.  
  
Sirius let out another laugh like a bark and leaned on his pinstriped umbrella like it was a rather fashionable walking stick.  
  
"Well, good luck to you mate, I'm off to find Mooney and Wormtail." He winked and twirled around to head down the long hall of compartments.  
  
James stood stock still for a moment and stared at the ornately carved door that led to the Head Compartment, contemplating all the different ways he could walk in and which one would impress Lily the most.  
  
He could be suave and debonair like Sirius...swing his umbrella over his shoulder and give her a wink when she looked up at him...  
  
Or he could be in panting and pretend he had just saved a poor little first year from the clutches of a couple of hex-happy Slytherins...  
  
Or...he could be himself...  
  
He let out a long breath and closed his eyes. Showing off for Lily Evans was not to be recommended. She could see right through him, she always had been able too, almost as if those gorgeous green eyes of her's were magical.  
  
Magical eyes indeed...  
  
He sighed and slid open the door. Or tried too.  
  
"Locked...?"  
  
Without pausing to consider the reasons why the door might be locked, James whipped out his wand and performed a quick 'Alohamora', and hearing the lock click, went ahead and pulled it open. Boy would he regret that...  
  
"AHHH!"  
  
Lily seemed to be in the process of discarding her wet clothes, as she stood in the center of the compartment in her bra and knickers (Which James noted, with some fascination, had little happy faces printed on them), Hogwarts robes clutched in one hand and her wand, soon pointed at James's throat, in the other.  
  
He stood rooted to the spot.  
  
Did I say that he would regret this? Because it turned out to be the greatest moment in James Potter's young life. Up until that point at least.  
  
"Get out you sicko- you stupid perverted- stupid- get out!"  
  
Since he was not moving, and staring, Lily shoved him out the door, slamming it behind her and began ranting at him through the thick mahogany as she put her clothes on.  
  
He paid her death threats and curses no mind however.  
  
He was in teenage boy bliss. Lily Evans...in her underwear...life was sweet...  
  
Then she came out of the compartment fully clothed and ready to kill.  
  
Her eyes were narrowed making her look positively catlike, and her hair was curling on the ends, slowly returning to it's lovely deep red color as it dried. But she was still extremely pale and her lips were a little blue. All in all, she looked rather menacing, and James thought it might be a good idea to run away right about now.  
  
She jabbed her finger into his chest painfully and advanced on him.  
  
"You prat! You pratty pervy wanker boy, I can't believe you! How dare you not even bother to knock before barging into the Head Compartment, which was LOCKED for a reason, you idiot!"  
  
She paused and her lips twitched. If James didn't know any better, he would say that she was trying desperately not to laugh. She threw her hands in the air with a "Your hopeless, you know that?", and marched back into the compartment, sliding the door shut in his face.  
  
He stood there for a good five minutes, staring at the door. Well, what was he to do now? Being in the same room with Lily Evans might not be a good idea at the moment, much as he liked the sound of it.  
  
He took in a few deep, calming breaths, and reached out to slide the door tentatively open.  
  
Lily was perched on one of the cushioned benches, her legs curled up beneath her and shivering slightly. Her lips were on the purplish side now, and she looked deathly pale. She looked up curiously from where she was rubbing her hands together to keep warm, and he could see the disappointment etched all over her face when she saw that it was just him.  
  
"Why are you still here?"  
  
He figured he'd lay it on her subtly.  
  
"I'm Head-Boy."  
  
And of course, he was about as subtle as an elephant in a tutu. The look on her face was rather amusing. She shook her head, opened her mouth to speak, then changed her mind and shook her head again.  
  
James shot her a nervous smile and shoved his hands in his pockets.  
  
"Um...surprise?"  
  
It took the best of ten minutes to convince her that he wasn't lying. In the end there was utter silence, and she turned away from him to stare out the window.  
  
He couldn't really blame her for ignoring him.  
  
After all, he had nearly killed her with his trolley the first time he met her, pulled her hair and teased her for three years steady, asked her out two to three times a day regardless of whether or not she had a boyfriend at the time, nearly molested her, yelled at her a bit, announced his undying love for her, stalked her, stalked her some more, forgot he had a girlfriend during all of this, yelled at her some more, had a near death experience involving an umbrella, touched her face, and walked in on her when she was half naked.  
  
Hmm.  
  
Well, when you piled it all up like that, you had to admit that things looked pretty hopeless for James. Were they cursed? Their entire history together consisted of spontaneous insanity, and that couldn't be healthy. You couldn't base a relationship on something like that, could you?  
  
He watched her shivering in the corner and frowned.  
  
"Your freezing-"  
  
Digging around in his pocket, he pulled out his miniscule trunk and muttered the counter curse, watching it swell back to it's original size. He flipped open the lid and shifted his things around until he came across a thick green cloak with golden fastenings. It was made of the best material, charmed to insulate the heat to your body, but the fact that it would bring out her eyes rather wonderfully didn't hurt either. Closing the lid to his trunk and shoving it under his seat, he shook out the cloak and handed it to her.  
  
She gave him a grateful smile and wrapped it around herself.  
  
After a couple of minutes, he was glad to see her cheeks getting a bit rosy, and her lips were back to their normal, sultry, dark pink color. Her hair was almost completely dry now, and lay around her shoulders in messy curls.  
  
He wondered how many more years of yearning after Lily Evans he could take before he broke down completely and pounced on her.  
  
"Do all of your knickers have little happy faces on them?"  
  
He should have known he would say something stupid. It was only a matter of time while he was around Lily.  
  
She blinked.  
  
"No. I've got some that have ducks on them."  
  
He thought that perhaps they were meant to be after all. He was good at asking weird questions and she was good at answering them.  
  
"I was attacked by a duck last week." He commented, feeling like an idiot.  
  
"How does one get attacked by a duck?"  
  
"You feed them firecrackers."  
  
"Ah."  
  
There was a brief silence, during which James's heart swelled painfully.  
  
"I'm sorry." He blurted out despairingly.  
  
"For what?"  
  
He sighed.  
  
"For everything."  
  
She seemed to consider him a moment, chewing on her lower lip and fiddling with a loose string on the expensive cloak that was draped around her.  
  
"Oh, it's all right. I forgive you." She said at last, rolling her eyes.  
  
He grinned slowly.  
  
"Really?"  
  
She nodded and leaned back in her seat to observe him. He fidgeted a bit, knowing that when she put him on the spot like that he was bound to say something ridiculous. So he opted on keeping his mouth shut, hard as it was, and stared right back at her; which was one thing he was very good at, thank you very much.  
  
She blinked at him, in that calm, curious way of hers, and turned to observe the murky countryside flashing past their window.  
  
Her looking away from him was both a good and a bad thing. He could breath now, and that was a plus, but the clearing of his head eventually led to him thinking, and him thinking usually led to nothing very good.  
  
He thought about their fight in Diagon Alley, the way her back had sparkled prettily in the sun, and he wondered why he had not been disappointed at all to see that the object of his every fantasy and desire did not wear tiny lace thongs with strings and zippers, but regular cotton underwear with little smiley faces on them.  
  
It hit him particularly hard right then, the overwhelming feelings he felt for her.  
  
She did that to him every once in awhile. She'd say something, or look at him a certain way, and the fact that he wanted her more than anything crashed down from nowhere and plonked him on the back of the head, making him feel dizzy and breathless.  
  
They were silent for the best part of thirty minutes and when James withdrew from his thoughts at last, he looked over to find Lily fast asleep; her head pressed against the glass and his cloak wrapped around her small body tightly.  
  
He stood to go, pausing at the doorframe and looking back at her for a long, quiet moment. Smiling, he headed down the long corridor, planning on informing Sirius that things between him and Lily Evans might just be going well at last.


	5. Beautiful Confusion

  
  
Five days into the new term found James lounging about under a towering Beech tree with Remus Lupin; fellow marauder, and one of his favorite people in the whole world. They were currently finishing up the mountain of homework that had somehow accumulated over the past week and exchanging pleasant predictions of where they would be ten months from now when their N.E.W.T.'s arrived at last.  
  
"Dead, most likely." Remarked James, scratching out a sentence or two with a grimace.  
  
Remus smiled wryly, not looking up from his foot long essay on 'The Use of The Unforgivable Curses and its Punishments'.  
  
"How so?"  
  
James scratched the tip of his nose with his quill absently.  
  
"I haven't decided yet. Drowning in the Head Bathroom sounds promising though, don't you think? Maybe Lily will happen in for a bath just after I've gone under and do that muggle CPA thing."  
  
"CPR, you twat."  
  
James grinned.  
  
"Oh yes...now that would be a lovely way to die..."  
  
He indulged himself in a few harmless fantasies while Remus continued on steadily with his essay.  
  
The sun was about a half hour away from disappearing under the tops of the misty purple mountains in the distance, and for the first time all week it was a beautifully clear day with not a rain cloud in sight.  
  
James sighed and flopped backwards, letting the tall grass mold around him and closing his eyes.  
  
So far seventh year was just the opposite of what everybody had been telling him it would be like. The workload was rather intense, true, but nothing he couldn't handle and nothing that he hadn't already handled back in Fifth year. He hadn't even had the urge to skive off class and sneak into Hogsmeade yet.  
  
In fact, he had never enjoyed class so much as he had this past week.  
  
And no, it was not because there were only about a handful of people in each of his N.E.W.T. classes, and of course, the fact that Lily Evans was one of them had nothing to do with it.  
  
Nothing at all.  
  
Really.  
  
Remus finished his essay with a flourish of his Eagle feather quill, yawned, and stretched out across the trunk of the beech tree. The sun splashed down on his golden brown hair and lit up his unusually pale skin nicely. There were two long scratches running down his cheek that were just beginning to heal, marring his otherwise attractive face and making him look somewhat foreboding.  
  
A couple of people had asked him about the cuts and he had answered with a simple- "Think this looks bad? You should see the other guy." which effectively stemmed the questions for a while.  
  
Unfortunately there was now a rumor going round that Remus Lupin was one of those really tough blokes that you did NOT want to cross; apparently, he enjoyed stealing money from small children and fist-fighting in his spare time.  
  
Most people eyed him in the halls now warily, as if he might suddenly snap and start beating people up for the fun of it.  
  
Lily, who found the idea of Remus Lupin being some sort of mad hooligan quite hysterical, spent a lot of time trying to pick fights with him in the corridors between classes, calling out loud taunts that made people stare and laughing delightedly when he'd narrow his eyes at her, point menacingly, and say something like, "You, me, by the lake at noon tomorrow. Bring a hefty supply of healing charms."  
  
They had always been rather good friends, Lily and Remus, and James tried very hard not to be jealous. It was beyond difficult, you know, to watch the girl he was madly in love with spend so much time with someone that wasn't him.  
  
"Whats the deal between you and Lily, lately?" Asked Remus suddenly, breaking James from his thoughts and causing him to wonder if perhaps Werewolves could read minds.  
  
He opened his eyes, looking up at the darkening sky through the leaves of the beech tree and wondering about what exactly their 'deal' was. She wasn't avoiding him any longer, but she wasn't going out of her way to talk to him either. When they did get into conversations they tended to be long and full of little comments he hadn't meant to say, and she laughed quite a bit, making him wonder whether she thought he was an idiot or whether she thought he was funny. He had asked her one time, and she had laughed again and said "a little bit of both".  
  
He was still trying to decide if that was a good or a bad thing.  
  
Sirius thought it sounded promising, but James couldn't really see how. He liked the fact that they were able to hold semi-normal conversations, but if she had any feelings for him other than those that lay in platonic friendship, then she would have done something by now, right?  
  
She knew exactly what his feelings were but she seemed quite determined to ignore them.  
  
"I don't know. I don't know what's going on." He answered at last, rather mournfully.  
  
Remus shifted a bit, looking down at James with an odd expression on his face.  
  
"She likes you." He said at long last, frowning slightly. "She says you make her want to laugh and cry and shout all at the same time. Beautiful confusion. That's what she calls you."  
  
It took James 3.7 seconds to understand what Remus had said. And when he did, he could have sworn that his heart had stopped beating. When he was finally able to speak it came out in little over a whisper.  
  
"She- she said that about me?"  
  
Remus nodded, watching him thoughtfully.  
  
He tried several times to form a coherent sentence but ended up with- "She likes me? As in she LIKES ME likes me?"  
  
"I don't know, James. Even if she did LIKE YOU like you, I don't think she would act on it."  
  
"And why not?" Demanded James, folding his arms across his chest indignantly.  
  
Remus watched him for a long moment, carefully choosing his words. The sun was just sinking below the mountaintops, and a last rush of golden light illuminated the grounds and turned the lake into a great mirror of fire. The first few stars were twinkling dimly above them and a sliver of the moon was just visible behind a mass of silver puffed clouds. It would be a beautiful night, just as it had been a beautiful day. James looked over at Remus, who sighed.  
  
"It's difficult for her. She's not used to this side of you, and it scares her because she can't figure out what to make of it. She wants to get to know you better because she wants desperately to understand."  
  
James rubbed his face tiredly.  
  
Love stunk.  
  
But, he thought cheerfully, she was worth every moment of unrelenting torture. And she didn't hate him any longer, which made things a bit easier. Now there was only the small problem of him not being able to string a sentence together when she came near him.  
  
He'd have to work on that.  
  
They were both so wrapped up in their thoughts that they never realized when Lily Evans herself had arrived, and they nearly jumped out of their skins when the sound of her clearing her throat met their ears.  
  
James stopped breathing. The moonlight was silvery on her skin and the stars were in her eyes and he felt helplessly entranced by the gentle movement of her hair as the wind blew through it.  
  
Beautiful confusion.  
  
He stared at her dumbly, not capable of so much as a 'hello'. She smiled at them and Remus returned it cheerfully.  
  
James wanted to throw something at him.  
  
"Sorry to interrupt-" She said distractedly, and James wondered if she knew that they had just been talking about her. She looked about the silver stained lawns a moment, frowning slightly.  
  
"I was just walking by the windows when I saw this huge black dog go by, chasing a mouse or something.... It's not everyday you see a dog running around Hogwarts, you know, so I thought I would come and investigate." She grinned at James beatifically. "Head Girl duty and all of that."  
  
James grinned back, not really knowing why. He probably should have been panicking considering the Head Girl was chasing around an illegal Animagus by the name of Sirius Black; but she was smiling, and that was reason enough for him to do so as well.  
  
Remus eyed her calmly from under his tree with his hands behind his head.  
  
James envied his cool more than anything.  
  
"You know..." The brown haired boy paused dramatically, picking at a hole in his trousers, "I reckon that big black dog you saw was...a Grim."  
  
Lily snorted derisively and folded her arms across her chest.  
  
"You can't be serious..."  
  
He looked pretty damn serious considering he was lying through his teeth. Remus was very good at that. He was always cracking jokes and insulting people, but he kept such a straight face in the midst of it that nobody quite realized what he had said until hours later when it was far too late. It was part of his charm.  
  
James envied that about him too.  
  
Not that James wasn't charming as well. He happened to know that he was a very charming, intelligent, fascinating individual, thank you very much.  
  
Really.  
  
He was.  
  
It was tricky remembering all of that though, especially when you looked into a pair of big green eyes and your brain melted into a puddle of goo. Remus didn't have that problem, it seemed, and that was why James envied him.  
  
Well, he had nice hair too.  
  
James would have liked to have nice hair.  
  
But no more envy other than that, no way.  
  
"Well...what did it look like then?" Remus prompted her, and she rolled her eyes a bit.  
  
"It was...huge and black-ish. With these...pale-ish eyes."  
  
"Was it...spectral-ish? Graveyard-ish? Omen of death-ish?" Remus asked innocently. His face was completely free of any emotion other than polite curiosity, so it was hard to tell whether he was mocking her or not.  
  
Lily put her hands on her hips, looking about ready to walk away and finish her search alone. She was always good at reading people, you know, so James figured Remus had been mocking her after all and she hadn't found it very funny.  
  
As if on cue, there was a loud howl toward the direction of the lake and the three of them turned to see a large-ish, black-ish, undoubtedly Sirius- ish dog running in circles around a small squeaking rodent.  
  
The rodent was most likey another illegal Animagus, this one by the name of Peter Pettigrew, as earlier this morning he had accidentally spilled his porridge all over Sirius's Defense Essay, effectively ruining two nights of work and causing the latter to vow revenge. He supposed that Sirius considered having Wormtail for an after dinner snack as decent enough payback.  
  
Lily was grinning like mad.  
  
"There it is! And not a Grim at all, you mad hooligan, you."  
  
Remus put on his toughest face and glared menacingly at her, but she was already gone, dashing down the hillside and laughing delightedly.  
  
The two boys exchanged brief 'Oh dear' looks and chased after her.  
  
Sirius got to her first, naturally. Whenever he saw who it was, the dogs tongue stuck out of its mouth and began panting loudly. It looked uncannily like a grin, and perhaps Lily noticed that too because the first thing she said was, "You look like you're up to something, Mr. Grim. Shall I call the Headmaster? Inform him of rabid animals sulking about the place?"  
  
The tongue retreated back into its mouth and the dog took a step back, its tail between its legs. Lily laughed at it, looking mildly fascinated.  
  
"Oh, I was just kidding!" The dog bounded up to her and stood on it's hind legs, throwing a paw on each of her shoulders and licking her face frantically.  
  
James didn't like that very much.  
  
"SIRIU-er...SNUFFLES! Get off her you mangy mutt!"  
  
Perhaps out of spite for being dubbed 'Snuffles' and a 'mangy mutt', the dog merely turned his head to toss another panting grin in James's general direction before leaving a last wet kiss on Lily's neck and barking loudly.  
  
That succeeded in pissing him off.  
  
"I'm sorry Lily-" He began, his brain oddly clear. "...Snuffles...is erm...my dog. He's not very well behaved. To stupid to respond to training, you know how it goes."  
  
The dog was growled in James's general direction and Lily looked thoughtful.  
  
"I don't know...he seems awfully smart to me..."  
  
The dog licked her face again and James felt his hands clench into fists.  
  
"Oh, Snuffles loves beautiful girls. He'll listen to you, but to everyone else he's just a pain in the ass." There was a bit more growling from Sirius and some blushing from Lily. "I've been trying to look up this spell for him...you know, the one that will prevent the world from being plagued with little Snuffle Juniors running around...No such luck though. Perhaps I'll let Hagrid have a look at him, I'm sure he would be able to chop 'em off in no time, huh?"  
  
Sirius was staring at him, with wide pale eyes, no trace of a doggy grin on his face.  
  
"Chop 'em off? That sounds pretty barbaric..." She replied, grinning a bit. Snuffles barked his agreement, licking her neck again.  
  
James smiled serenely at her.  
  
"Oh, Hagrid would handle him...delicately...I'm sure...."  
  
Snuffles removed himself from Lily's shoulders and backed away from all of them nervously. She pat him on the back and grinned.  
  
"That's right, Snuffles, run while you still can."  
  
He did just that, and the small squeaking rodent twittered after him. Lily stared after the pair of them muttering indistinctly and shaking her head.  
  
Remus was looking on with that deceptively straight face of his, hands shoved in his pockets and his lips pulled into a slight smirk as he observed Lily and James. Now that James had no one to distract him, he seemed to become aware that the object of his affections was standing three feet in front of him and the fact that she was wearing a rather small skirt seemed not to escape his notice either, as he looked like he was having problems settling on one place to stare at.  
  
James thought she was beautiful.  
  
And......  
  
Well, at the moment that was all he could come up with.  
  
"Why didn't you say the dog was yours in the first place?" Lily asked with a smile.  
  
If she had any hunch at all that he had spent the past ten seconds mentally undressing her, she was ignoring it. He was thankful for that too, because he was having a lovely time.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
She rolled her eyes and laughed a little.  
  
"When are you going to stop that, Potter?"  
  
Remus chose that moment to walk away, hands in his pockets, whistling pleasantly. They didn't seem to notice him go. James blushed furiously, thinking that she was referring to the fact that he was now imagining her in her underwear.  
  
"I'm sorry, I'll...um...stop now."  
  
She laughed prettily; crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her head a bit to observe him.  
  
"Actually, I was talking about you being all weird and nervous around me. But I wouldn't mind if you stopped eyeing my legs for a moment, either."  
  
But she had such lovely legs.......  
  
He coughed jerkily and settled his gaze on her left ear instead. There was a short silence during which the sound of crickets and the fluttering of crows' wings across the lake became deafening. Suddenly she was in front of him; smiling with the stars in her eyes. His breath caught in his throat and he stood there for a few moments.  
  
"Walk me to the castle? We have a meeting with the prefects in thirty minutes, and then a conference with the Headmaster." She held out her arm companionably and he stared at that for a bit as well, swallowing loudly before he accepted it.  
  
He was vaguely aware of his feet beginning to move and the sound of the autumn foliage crunching beneath their feet, but the majority of his brain was concentrating on the feel of her skin on his fingertips and the fact that the wind was blowing a long strand of her hair into his face, tickling his cheek. He inhaled the scent of flowers and his eyes closed.  
  
Life was sweet.  
  
For a while at least.  
  
"I think it's time for you to get over your strange shyness, James." She declared, not sounding mean or cold in the least. Her voice was laughing at him, and his fingers tingled from where they were now brushing the soft skin of her forearm.  
  
He cleared his throat, determined to prove that he was not 100% prat-boy.  
  
"I...don't know how."  
  
He was only 99%, thank you very much.  
  
She smiled stunningly at him, and he realized suddenly how dangerously close she was. He gulped and couldn't keep his eyes from roaming her face. Her eyes, her lips, her scar. She was too much to take in, and he felt dizzy with emotion. He didn't know what he wanted to do more; grab her and simply hold her, without an inch of space between them, feeling her heartbeat against his chest like he had in the Owlery; or drag her into a broom closet somewhere.  
  
"Don't worry," She had a glint in her eyes that frightened him, "I've got a plan." He gulped and she pulled him into the school, the doors banging shut behind them.  
  
Well.  
  
Now he was terrified. 


End file.
